Title THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS: A HISTORY OF THE RISE OF THE ZULU NATION UNDER SHAKA AND ITS FALL IN THE ZULU WAR OF 1879.

Publisher Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986, reprint.

Seller ID 24206

655 pp, large 8vo (9 1/2" H), hard cover in dust jacket. ISBN 067163108X B&w photographs, maps/battle plans. "(The) definitive account of a tragic and awe-inspiring story: the rise of the Zulu nation in southern Africa under the great ruler Shaka , and its fall under Cetshwayo in the Zulu War of 1879. For more than a century after the European landing at Capetown in the seventeenth century, the Boers had advanced unopposed into the vast interior of Africa. It was not until 1824 that E u r o p e ans came face to face with another expanding and imperial power, the Zulus - the most formidable nation in black Africa. That confrontation eventually culminated in a bitter war betwen the Zulu warriors and Victoria's British Army. It wa s th e la st despairing effort of Africans to stem the tide of white civilization. The result was a dramatic, legendary, and bloody defeat at Isandhlwana for the British; the aftermath was the defeat and fall of the remarkable Zulu nation." V e ry li ght w rin kli ng at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket has light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds. Very Good/Very Good